Oxford City Stars lost 5-4 to Telford Royals in a pulsating but bad-tempered English Cup game at Oxpens, writes Colin Kirby.

Anyone feeling short-changed by the Tyson/Golotta fight would have got their money's worth.

No fewer than ten players were thrown out and nearly 400 minutes of penalties were handed out as some old scores were settled following Stars' 7-1 away defeat in the league.

Stars made good early progress, but Telford netminder Daniel Heslop brought off some great saves, including a double block from Darren Elliott and Andy Goddard, which led to a break for an Adam Brittle goal.

Peter Nyman's fierce slapshot scorched into the visitors net to equalise. But tempers were already frayed, with players picking their fight partners and worse was to follow.

Oxford were caught cold in the second period as Parry netted on the powerplay.

Glenn West laid back the puck to Paul Donohoe on the powerplay to tie the scores but former Oxford player James Clarke put Royals ahead again ahead.

Andy Cox saw his shot squirm under Heslop but Bates netted a rebound as penalties and fights broke out in abundance.

Former Oxford Blades player-coach David Fielder seemed particularly fired up with a series of cheap shots on Oxford players.

And with three separate fights going on at one time, referee Meir had his work cut out.

The third period saw Oxford struggle to get back in the game as Rowe hit a well-worked goal to stretch the visitors' lead before Stars hit back with a Chris West strike.

Westsuffered a mouth injury as the result of a vicious stick lunge as the game threatened to explode.

Stars battled hard to rescue the game and, despite a two-man advantage for five minutes due to penalties, they couldn't pull it off.

It was a disappointing weekend for Stars as the under 16s lost 3-2 at Chelmsford and the under 19s 6-5 at Bracknell.